After I got home from taking AJ shopping on Saturday, I finished drawing my new purse design and then I decided that it might be a good idea to dye some slub to hook into the new purse. I though just a few skeins wouldn't take too long or make too much mess, and since it was pretty breezy out, it might even be dry later that same evening - even though it was almost 5 o'clock.
While I was dyeing the slub, I decied that it would make the most sense to hook the main motifs with the slub....and then just freestyle the background (this will make sense when I show a picture hopefully later this week - starting the hooking was one of the things that didn't happen yet ;-) ). Naturally I couldn't really start hooking until the slub was dry, so I needed to something to do in the meantime....
Several weeks ago, I bought many (many!) yards of silk duponi with the intention of dyeing it and creating my own version of the sari ribbons. I'd already cut it all up into manageable pieces for dyeing, so how long could it take to dye a few pieces of silk?
The dyeing itself didn't really take all that long, it was the "everything else" that took the better part of a whole day: rinsing lead to thread-picking, drying led to ironing, sorting and stacking let to cutting, counting, bagging, boxing, etc.
I've decided to call them "silk worms"....since they are ready-to-hook strips of 100% silk. I'm really happy with all of the colours and the baggies look even better than when I'd first imagined them, right after the Annual.
Here are some before pictures of my pile of leftover bits (along with all of the crooked, mis-shapen off-cuts), and in the coming days I'll post some pictures of it after it's been hooked into my purse. I can't wait to start hooking with all of the odd off-cuts and leftover bits. I think my favourite thing will be the clean-cut edges -- and I'll get all of the shine of the sari, without the shagginess.
Oh, and did I mention that the slub I dyed on Saturday wasn't even the right colour when it dried? I guess getting tangled up the silk wasn't the only reason I haven't started hooking on the new purse yet....
